With the recent passing of Harry Anderson, the man behind the Space City Cover Society (SCCS), I thought it would be appropriate to take a look back at a couple of his covers.

The cover above was the first SCCS cover, postmarked January 27, 1967 in Houston, where Mission Control had been up for the Apollo 204 "plugs-out" test, when a fire in the cabin killed all three of the astronauts. Harry produced a limited number of these covers with green (shown), orange, and blue lettering.

One of Harry's later SCCS creations is shown above, postmarked in Houston on April 14, 1970, when Mission Control began the process of bringing the stricken Apollo 13 home. It is notable that Harry had already printed the left hand portion of the cachet before the flight, since it shows Mattingly being on the crew, and was meant to commemorate Apollo 13's lunar liftoff that never happened. Harry got these postmarked on April 14 for the emergency return, then added the wording at the right. Now, in the middle of the cover is a characteristic of later SCCS's - the local post (or "lo-po") stamp (blue and gold) and cancel. An aged postal regulation allowed the addition of a private stamp to a cover for local delivery through a private local-post. Harry took advantage of this to add his own extra touch to these covers. Love 'em or hate 'em, the SCCS "lo-po's" are a collecting niche in themselves!

stevedd841

This is the orange version of the cachet of the three cachets that Harry Anderson of SCCS covers produced for the Apollo 204 tragedy, January 27, 1967. The flight was later renamed Apollo 1 at the request of the deceased astronauts' families with NASA officials' approval.

Steve Durst, SU 4379

randyc

I have the complete set of three covers (with green, orange and blue cachets).

Is there any information on how many complete sets were produced?

NAAmodel#240

Wasn't the cachet used (without the Morning black border) in 1965 for the GT-IV spacewalk sporting a Houston cancel?

micropooz

Haven't seen one for GT-4. Got an image?

stevedd841

quote:Originally posted by NAAmodel#240:Wasn't the cachet used (without the Morning black border) in 1965 for the GT-IV spacewalk sporting a Houston cancel?

Good memory, but there was one other Harry Anderson (Trey Co.) SCCS printed cachet cover canceled earlier and similar to the cover for Gemini 4 that you've described. Check your collection to see if you have the first water endurance and recovery test for the Gemini boiler plate spacecraft, June 28, 1963, conducted in Galveston Bay, Texas.

As you mentioned, Anderson used a similar printed cachet in orange for the Gemini 4 flight of June 3, 1965, and also canceled on the recovery date of June 7, 1965, Houston, Texas. This cover was also the first time MSC, Houston, directed a space flight. And, yes, the cover matches your description for Gemini 4. It does not have the black border later used for the January 27, 1967, Apollo 204 (Apollo 1) tragedy at LC-34. Here are scans for both of these Anderson SCCS covers:

stevedd841

Well, fellow space cover collectors, here's the Anderson printed cachet in dark navy blue for the Apollo 204 (renamed Apollo 1) tragedy of January 27, 1967, completing the set of three covers for this. My notes indicate that only 100 of each color, orange, green, and navy blue, were made. You can put a set together of these three covers, but it may take a while. My set took about five years to find all three on the open market. It is doable, though, wishing you good luck in finding them!

spaceman1953

Thank to all for the memories!

Seems like my first Apollo 1 cover was the green one....must have been advertised in Linn's or the Astrophile. I think I ordered it and paid 25-cents for it.

Then a couple of years later, I zipped it off to an address I had for Betty Grissom, hoping for an autograph... Being a dumb kid, I never thought I was asking for too much but it never made it's way back to me! It was one of only two or three covers I ever mailed out that never came back!

I took me some 30 years or more before I found a replacement. I think I paid $2.50 for that one and it was a blue one, I am pretty sure. It took looking at a lot of covers to find the replacement!

Apollo-Soyuz

As a postscript to Dennis' posting, I thought I'd show 2 of my favorite SCCS covers Mariner-10 first day covers. Cachet is a simple design. One cover is the standard first day cancel; the other was cancelled with the MARINER-10/FIRST VOYAGE/TO MERCURY slogan cancel that was used at Pasadena, Ca. during Mariner-10 mission events. Nice tie-in to the stamp's first day of issue.

------------------John MaccoSpace Unit #1457

NAAmodel#240

I don't mean to muddy the water (ok, maybe I do) by asking about color. I have four of these (green, orange, blue, and purple (?)). When you look at the Galveston Bay cover (it looks purple to me) and you compare it to your blue would you say they are different colors or just shades of the same thing?

stevedd841

Hi David, Go ahead and post your SCCS cover so we can take a look at it. The colors look true to me: a plum purple color vs. a deep navy blue. My covers are different colors. Hope this helps.

micropooz

Holy moly! I just stumbled across an even older SCCS, from Astronaut Group 2 reporting to Houston on Sept. 17, 1962. When you put a magnifying glass to the little logo at the lower right of the cachet (just below and right of Lovell), it says "Space City"!

Joe Frasketi

Thanks for showing the early SCCS cover of Sept. 17, 1962. I found an earlier one dated 21 August 1962 in my stock of covers.

The cachet is on a Rice Hotel, Houston envelope and commemorates the First Space Meeting of 1200 scientists, engineers & educators. It depicts Scott Carpenter and mentions the evaluation of his Project Mercury space flight by this group.

Does an earlier dated SCCS cover exist?

micropooz

I thought I had already posted this, but now cannot find it - A gentleman named Stephen Garner has done a bunch of research on SCCS and its predecessor Treyco, and put it on a website!